
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 

Chap. Copyright So......... 

Shelf...M.^,F^ 



UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



THE 



FRUIT OF THE VINE 



BY 



THE REV. ANDREW MURRAY 

AUTHOR OF "ABIDE IN CHRIST," "WITH CHRIST," "LIKE 
CHRIST," ETC. 



NEW YORK: 46 East 14TH Street 

THOMAS Y. CROWELL & COMPANY 

BOSTON : 100 Purchase Street 



The Library 
OF Congress 



WlLSHtNGTON 



2'^i:f' 



V0811 



Copyright, 1S98, 
By T. Y. CROWELL & CO. 




jWO COPIES RtOFlVEO. 



J. S. Gushing & Co. — Berwick & Smith 
Norwood Mass. U.S.A. 



^ li 



.-/' 



1898. 



CONTENTS. 



PAGK 

I. Fruit ......... 5 

I. The Life in the Vine ..... 6 

II. The Life in the Branch .... 7 

III. The Life in the Fruit ..... 9 

lY. The Life in those who partake of the 

Fruit 10 

II. No Fruit 12 

T\YO Things about Fruit ..... 13 

This Selfish Salvation ...... 15 

The Place Fruit has in the Mind of God . 17 

III. More Fruit 20 

A Selfish Religion makes Selfish Men . . 21 
The Great Hindrance in the Vine to Fruit- 
bearing is Wood-bearing .... 24 

IV. Much Fruit . .27 

V. Abiding Fruit ........ 35 

VI. Fruit and Prayer ....... 43 

3 



THE FRUIT OF THE VINE.^ 



I. FEUIT. 



^' I am the True Vine, and My Father is the Husbandman. 
Every branch in Me that beareth not fruit, He taketh away : and 
every branch that beareth fruit, He cleanseth it." — John xv. 1, 2. 

A vixE is planted solely for the sake of its fruit. 
There are many sorts of yines, each with its different 
sort of fruit. When a husbandman plants a vine or a 
vineyard, he selects that special sort of which he desires 
to have the fruit. The fruit will be the manifestation 
of his purpose. When God planted the Heavenly Vine, 
it was that its fruit might bring life and strength to 
dying men. The very life of God, which man had lost 
by the fall, was to be brought back to him by Christ 
from heaven; Christ was to be to men the True Tree of 
Life. In Him, the True, the Heavenly Vine, in His 
Word and work, in His life and death, the life of God 
was brought within reach of men; all who should eat of 
the fruit should live for ever. 

* After I had written a little book just pubUshed, The Mystery 
of the True Vine, I felt how little I had realised or sufficiently 
emphasised the wonderful place that Fruit takes in Christ's teach- 
ing in the parable. In these six chapters on Fruit, No Fruit, 
More Fruit, Much Fruit, Abiding Fruit, Fruit and Prayer, 
I have tried in some measure to make up for what is lacking- 
there. —A.M. 

5 



b THE FRUIT OF THE VINE. 

More wonderful still, Christ's disciples should not 
only eat and live, but in their turn again become fruit- 
bearing branches. The Divine life entering into them 
should not only dwell in them, but so assert its quicken- 
ing power that it should show itself in the fruit they 
bear for their fellow-men. As truly as the Heavenly 
Vine, all its branches receive the life of God. 



I. THE LIFE IX THE VIXE. 

We often speak of receiving Christ, following Christ, 
of Christ living in us, when our ideas of what Christ is 
are very vague. Christ gave Himself a sacrifice to God 
for men, and that proved what is the true nobility of 
man as partaker of the Divine nature. We speak, and 
rightly too, of the obedience of Christ as the meritorious 
cause of our salvation : " By the obedience of One many 
were made righteous." But we do not sufficiently recog- 
nise what it was that gave that obedience its redeeming 
power. It was this — that in it Christ restored that 
which is the one only thing that the creature can render 
to its Creator, and so rendered to God what man owed 
to Him. It is because of this obedience He became a 
Eedeemer, and this disposition is the very life which as 
the Heavenly Vine He imparts. " Let this mind be in 
you, which was in Christ Jesus, who became obedient 
unto death. Therefore God hath highly exalted Him." 
The life of God in human nature is obedience to the 
death. 

And with that Christ loved men. In that He fulfilled 
the will of God. He gave Himself to the mighty Ke- 
deeming love of God towards men, and so gave Himself 
as much to men as to God. There is no possible way of 



THE FRUIT OF THE VINE. 1 

living for God but by loving and living for the men whom 
He loves and lives for. The human life in Christ could 
be nothing but a surrender to His love to be used in sav- 
ing and blessing men. Whether in God, or in Christ, 
or in us, the Divine life is love to men. This is the 
life-sap of the True Vine, the spirit that was in Christ 
Jesus. 

II. THE LIFE IN THE BRANCH. 

It is essentially and entirely the same as that in the 
Vine. If we would bear fruit, it can only come as the 
life and the power that work in the Vine work in us. 
This alone is the secret of effective service. 

In Christian work a great mistake is often made. 
The difference between work and fruit is overlooked. 
Under a sense of duty or from an inborn love of work, 
a Christian may be very diligent in doing his work for 
God, and yet find little blessing in it. He may think 
of gratitude as the great motive of the Christian life, 
and not understand that though that may stir the will, 
it cannot give the power to work successfully. We need 
to see that if work is to be acceptable and effectual, it 
must come as fruit ; it must be the spontaneous outgrowth 
of a healthy^ vigorous life, the Spirit and power of Christ 
living and working in us. And that power can only 
work freely and effectually in us as our chief care is to 
maintain the relationship to our Lord close and intimate. 
As He streams His dispositions into us, our work will 
truly be the fruit the Vine bears. 

Still another mistake is made. We pray very ear- 
nestly for God's blessing on our work and on those whom 
we wish to help. We forget that the God who delights 
to bless wishes to bless ourselves first, to give into our 



8 THE FRUIT OF THE VINE. 

hearts the blessing He wants to impart through us. We 
are not channels, in the sense in which a leaden or an 
earthen pipe is when it conveys water, and yet does not 
drink it in. We are channels in the way the branch is. 
The sap of the vine, before it goes through it to form 
fruit, first enters to be its life, to give it new wood and 
strength, and then passes on into the grape. When we 
preach the love of God and obedience to Him, when we 
call men to yield themselves to that love, we must first 
seek each day to be receiving afresh, in close communion 
with Christ Jesus, that love and devotion to God into 
our own hearts. W^hen we teach love to man, we should 
do it as those in whom the fruit of the Spirit, which is 
love, is manifest in its freshness and beauty. 

It is by having exactly the same spirit that was in 
Christ Jesus, and being possessed of the same mind and 
disposition that was in Him, that we can bear the same 
fruit He bore, that He can still bring forth fruit through 
us. And this spirit we cannot have by any imitation or 
effort, but only by receiving it fresh from Himself every 
morning and all the day. An intense devotion to God 
and an entire yielding up of ourselves to His service for 
men, and giving up of our life to live, and love, and die 
for men, as Jesus did, this is the life to which the 
branches of the True Vine are called, this is the life for 
which the True Vine will surely fit us. His words are 
true: He is the Truth and the Life. He gives all He 
promises. Count no time too precious and no pains too 
great, in waiting on Him by His Spirit to reveal to you 
the wondrous mystery of your being a branch, a partaker 
of the very Life there is in the Vine. 



THE FRUIT OF THE VINE, 



IIT. THE LIFE IX THE FRUIT. 

If we have understood how the life in the Father, the 
Husbandman, and the life in the Son, the Vine, and the 
life in the Believer, the Branch, are, and cannot but be, 
one and the same, we shall easily see how it must still 
be the very same in the fruit the branch bears. It is of 
the utmost consequence to get a firm hold of this: tJie 
life, and words, and works of a believer can carry the life 
of God and convey it to Ms fellow-men. Our whole life, 
with all we are and do, can be the fruit of the Vine. 

Character and Conduct are Fruit. The influence a 
holy life has, is Fruit. The reverence for God that is 
awakened by the presence of a truly godly man, the 
desire that is stirred to possess what they see in him 
and lack themselves, is Fruit. Every witness to the 
supreme claim of God's will, to the blessedness of full 
surrender and obedience, every act of Christ-like love 
and humility, every work in which the light of Christ's 
life shines out, is Fruit — the hidden sap of the heavenly 
Vine made manifest. 

Words are Fruit. Christ not only lived, but He spake. 
Our life needs words to interpret its meaning, and give 
its message. The Christ in the heart must be confessed 
by the mouth. God's words living in the heart by the 
Holy Spirit, uttered by the lips, are the seeds of eternal 
life. As our life is the manifestation of the hidden life 
of the Vine, as the absolute surrender to God's will for 
His service among men, with the continuous dependence 
upon His presence and power fills, the heart, the words 
will be with a heavenly power. The Divine Life in the 
Vine will be Divine Life in the Fruit, as the Branch, 
the connecting living channel, allows the Life to flow 
through unhindered. 



10 THE FRUIT OF THE VINE, 

Prayers are Fruit. There is perhaps no higher fruit 
than the power of intercession. With Christ it is the 
fruit of His work on earth: "He ever liveth to pray." 
It is the fruit of the presence in us of " the Spirit that 
maketh intercession." The reason that its power is so 
little believed and proved, that the wonderful unlimited 
prayer-promises of our Lord are practically regarded as 
not literally meant for us, is that we do not believe that 
the Divine life of the Vine is actually in us, flowing 
through us to men, rising uj^ through us to God in 
prayer, bearing fruit that reaches even into heaven, and 
makes glad the heart of God. 

Whatever be the fruit we bear, whether in the works 
we do or the words we speak, or the prayers we offer, 
do let us get hold of the truth, that all true fruit is in 
very deed the natural outgrowth of the life of Christ, 
under different forms. The life in Him and the Branch 
and the Fruit are most completely the same. 

IV. THE LIFE IN THOSE WHO PARTAKE OF THE FRUIT 

cannot be different. As the whole aim of vine and 
branch is to bear fruit that carries and imparts their 
life, so the object of eating the fruit is to receive the 
life. The obedience to God and the love to men, the 
sacrifice to God for men, which was in Christ and is in 
His true disciples the animating power, is what is 
offered men with the fruit. The redeeming power of 
His obedience and sacrifice, as it atoned for our sin, and 
reproduces its own spirit in all who believe, is what 
they must learn from us, and see in us, and receive from 
us. As this is done, they eat of the fruit of the very 
Tree of Life, borne to them by the branches. And so 



THE FRUIT OF THE VINE. 11 

the life they receive will have its character from that 
which is in the fruit. Where the abiding in the Vine 
is feeble, the fellowship with Christ on the part of the 
worker is not clear and unceasing, the fruit cannot be 
full and rich, and the life it brings to the converts will 
not be marked by true devotion to God and man. When, 
on the other hand, the life of the branches is in the 
power of the Spirit, and animated by intense desire for 
full conformity to Christ, the Vine, its character will 
reappear in those who have partaken of its fruit. 

The great central truth we need to apprehend is, that 
the Divine life, whether as found in the Vine, or flowing 
through the Branch, or seen in the Fruit, or handled and 
partaken of by men, must be one and the same. And 
that, therefore, for each one who would truly . live the 
branch life and bear much fruifc, everything depends 
upon realising and maintaining the vital connection 
with the Vine. As this is done, all self-confidence and all 
discouragement will equally be conquered. As fellow- 
labourers with Christ in His great work of saving men, 
as branches who are no less ordained of God to carry life 
to men than Christ the Vine, we shall learn that our one 
need, as the one lesson of the parable, is unbounded faith. 
Faith will see that all that is in Christ is in us ; that in 
our feebleness and our work we can count upon Christ's 
life and power working in us ; that our life and fruit can 
indeed be full of His life and spirit. Such faith will 
lead us to maintain the contact with the Vine as closely 
and unceasingly as we see it in the earthly vine, and 
will grow up into a strong assurance that as naturally as 
the health and fatness of the earthly vine pass into the 
branches, will the fulness of Christ Jesus become our 
life and strength. 



12 THE FBUIT OF THE VTXE. 



II. XO FEUIT. 

" Every branch in Me that beareth not fruit, He taketh away." 

— JOHX XV. 2. 

The one object with which a hubsandman phmts a 
vine, and the vine has its place in the vineyard, is that 
it may bring forth fruit. The one object with which 
the branch has its place in the vine, is that it may bear 
the fruit the vine brings forth. The one object with 
which the Son of God became the Vine of God on earth 
was that He might bring forth fruit for the salvation of 
men. And the one object with which the believer is 
made a branch of the Heavenl}^ Vine is that through 
him Christ may bring forth fruit, and bring it within 
reach of the hungry and the perishing. With the Hus- 
bandman, and the Vine, and the Branch it is all Fruit, 
Fruit, Fruit! 

Immediately following on the opening words : ^' I am 
the True Vine, and My Father is the Husbandman," our 
Lord uses the word three times. In the course of the 
parable the word occurs eight times, with the variations, 
"Fruit," "No Fruit," "More Fruit," "Much Fruit," 
"Abiding Fruit." Everything points to the great truth 
that the heart of God is set upon this one thing, and 
that, as Christ is the Vine solely with this one purpose, 
so the one aim of the believer ought to be to bring forth 
much fruit. Let us enter upon our study of this, the 
key word of the parable, with the prayer that fruit may 
be to us nothing less than it is to God the Husbandman, 



THE FRUIT OF THE FINE. 13 

and Christ the Vine — the one blessed and all controlling 
reason for our being branches. If our insight into God's 
mind on this point be defective, our Christian life must 
suffer. As we are filled with the knowledge of God's 
will in this, in vrisdom and spiritual understanding, our 
life can become wholly well-pleasing to Him. 

'' Every branch in Me that beareth not fruit. He taketh 
away. '' Xo words could express more clearly than these, 
which come first after the opening announcement, " I am 
the Vine and My Father is the Husbandman," the solemn 
truth that fruit is the one test of true discipleship, the 
only evidence that will be accepted on. earth or in heaven 
of the reality of our union with Christ. Until a Chris- 
tian sees this and its exceeding reasonableness, he does 
not know what the Christian calling is. The fruitless 
branch must be taken away : it is only by fruit-bearing 
that our place in Christ can be maintained. 

To understand the reason wh}^ this should be so, let 
us notice 

TWO THINGS ABOUT FRUIT. 

The one is, fruit is the natural spontaneous production of a 
plant, the forthputting in visible shape of its hidden 
life and sap. If the life of the tree be healthy, there 
will be good and abundant fruit. The fruit simply 
reveals what is in the tree. In the fruit the tree gives 
is its own witness as to what its state and nature is. 

The other characteristic of fruit is, that the tree bears 
it not for itself but for the owner. All true life, all exist- 
ence, serves a purpose. By its fruit a tree fulfills its 
destiny of supplying the needs of men or animals. Fruit 
is what the tree gives away; in it, it returns to nature 
or to its master what has been spent upon it. 



14 



THE FRUIT OF THE VISE. 



In both of these aspects fruit is the one great test of 
the Christian life, the true revelation of our inner state. 
All God-given life has in it something of the nature of 
the Divine life out of which it came. The life of God 
is a mystery, hidden and incomprehensible. But God 
reveals Himself in His works. And so man reveals 
himself in his works; conduct is everywhere the expo- 
nent of character; what a man does shows what he is. 
The inner life of the Christian is the resurrection life of 
Christ, the power of the Holy Spirit: no one who appre- 
hends this truly, and yields himself to it, but must 
bear fruit. What is said of Christ : '' He could not be 
hidden.*' is true of all His people: the hidden life must 
break out. 

And this not only for the manifestation, but for the 
communication, of life. The fruit is not its own end: 
in it the hidden life is embodied in such a form that it 
can impart itself to men. The fruit fulfils the universal 
law, imprinted by its [Maker on all creation, the law of 
beneficence. Xothing lives for itself. God is Love, and 
lives not for Himself: He finds His life, His delight, 
His glory, in blessing His creatures. His Son is the 
embodiment of love and self-sacrifice. And God's re- 
deemed children, how could the life and Spirit of Christ 
truly enter them without at once seeking to find its way 
to others in love and blessing? 

Simple as these truths appear, it is astonishing and 
saddening to find how little they are understood, and 
preached, and practised. How many a one there is, 
who thinks of receiving Christ for himself, and not for 
others I He does not know that the Christ who comes 
into his heart is Christ the Saviour of all men, and that 
He has entered into him solely ivith the vieiv of through 



THE FRUIT OF THE VINE, 15 

Iiim carrying on His luork of saving others. We may well 
ask such : ^'Is Christ divided?" Can you take a part of 

Christ, enough for yourself, and leave the rest for others, 
to be brought them or not, as may happen? Verily, no. 
Christ who loves all has come into you, to dwell in you 
with that love, to have and fit you for a vessel and 
instrument of that love, and its possessing your heart, 
and becoming your love to the perishing. The proof 
that you are a true branch of the True Vine, is your 
bearing His fruit for others : the proof of the presence 
of the True Christ within you, is the outgoing of your 
heart in love to those He loves. We are ^' saved to 
serve.'' But God does not need our service, except in 
saving men. We are saved to serve our fellow-men : that 
is God's true service. The sacrifice Christ gave of Him- 
self was ''to God for men"; that is the only true sur- 
render we can make. 

To many Christians, salvation means nothing but 
safety; salvation from sin and self. Salvation for tlie 
sake of God and men, salvation for f rut-bearing, is not 
thought of. 

THIS SELFISH SALTATION 

has been one of the great causes o'i continual feebleness 
in the Christian life, and of stumbling to men who are 
not Christians. If fruit be spoken of, it is chiefl}" as 
an evidence of being safe, or else as some return to be 
rendered to God in gratitude for what He has done. 
Fruit, to the glory of God and the blessing of men, as 
the great object, the highest privilege, the sure and natural 
outcome of the life in Christ, has almost no place in the 
scheme of life. And where it is thought of — for the 
words are too plain to be neglected — there it is often 



16 THE FBUIT OF THE VINE. 

sought after in human strength and wisdom. Christ 
said: ^' As the branch cannot 0/ ?Yse// bear fruit, except 
it abide in the vine, no more can ye, except ye abide iu 
Me." Ao frmt of itself — the words reveal the reason 
there is so little fruit. Men seek it in their own efforts : 
they never come to apprehend and believe in and wait 
for that Divine and infallible supply of strength which 
comes through true, close, and continuous abiding in 
Christ, through living on and depending on Him alone. 
The words of our text are a warning to all Christians 
who make fruit a secondary thing, to see lest what they 
count their religious work be no fruit at all, not the 
spontaneous growth of a life hid with Christ in God. 

'' Every branch in Me that beareth not fruit. He taketh 
away.'^ One of the terrible consequences of the com- 
parative unfruitfuless of many Christians, and of the 
truth of fruit as indispensable to the true life not having 
the place it ought to have in the teaching of the Church, 
is, that multitudes of men are deluded into thinking 
themselves Christians, without any fruit at all. There 
is so little difference between them and those who make 
a distinct profession of being saved, that the lack of 
fruit does not trouble them; there is no clear testimony 
in the lives around them, that without fruit there can 
be no true salvation. If it were said to them that our 
salvation will be tested by our care for others, they would 
ask if works are to have any part in securing our final 
salvation. And yet this is what our Lord plainly 
teaches. The " Come ye blessed of My Father, inherit 
the kingdom prepared for you," has its ground in the 
"Inasmuch as ye have done it to the least of these." In 
the Sermon on the Mount, the good fruit is the " doing 
of the will of the Father." It cannot be too loudly and 



I 



THE FRUIT OF THE VINE. 17 

urgently preached that the words of our Lord are liter- 
ally and absolutely true: "Every branch in Me that 
beareth not fruit. He taketh away.'' And that the call 
to conversion is a call to a life bringing, .forth fruits 
meet for repentance, a life of obedience to God, and 
beneficence to men. He redeemed us unto Himself for 
a people of His own possession, zealous of good works, 
"fruitful in every good work." 

"Every branch in Me that beareth not fruit, He taketh 
away." It was not only as a warning to the individual 
that our Lord spake these words to the disciples, but to 
instruct them, as the future teachers of His Church, 
as to 

THE PLACE FRUIT HAS IX THE MIXD OF GOD, 

and is to have in the teaching and care of His servants. 
It takes long before we realise that as definitely and 
exclusively as a husbandman plants a vineyard for the 
sake of its fruit, and as definitely as God planted the 
heavenly Vine for the sake of its fruit. Every branch has 
its place in the Vine, only and solely for the sake of its 
fruit. Fruit is the first consideration, it rules all the 
husbandman's labour; it decides the fate of every 
branch. "Every branch that bearetli not fruit, He tak- 
eth away " : this irreversible judgment of God is the 
overwhelming proof that nothing but fruit can satisfy 
Him. 

If the truth were to take hold of believers, what sorrow 
would fill their hearts at the thought of all the unfruitful 
professors to be found in our churches! In the judg- 
ment of charity men are considered safe; it is hoped 
that the root of the matter is in them, while the evi- 
dences of the fruit of the Spirit, or even of the desire to 



18 THE FRUIT OF THE VINE. 

bring forth much fruit, are sadly lacking. We complain 
of the lack of interest in missions, of true self-sacrifice 
or earnest prayer for the salvation of men, of the diffi- 
culty of finding devoted spiritual workers among num- 
bers of our respectable church members. We confess 
to a terrible increase of the worldly spirit that is ever 
spending more on comfort and luxury, while out of that 
abundance there is hardly anything for the extension of 
Christ's kingdom. Ministers will tell of congregations, 
containing many of whom they trust that they are 
Christians, and who will take some little part in work, 
and yet'so few, if any, who possess the devotion or the 
spirituality that has the power or the will to sacrifice 
itself, and influence men for God. The lesson that every 
vine and every branch throughout the world teaches — 
we only are for the sake of our fruit — must enter into 
the Christian consciousness of our days. 

It is especially among our converts and young Chris- 
tians, our students and young ministers, that we must 
seek to let the word ^^ Fruit '' acquire power. The simple 
truth that nature teaches concerning it, with the Divine 
application Christ has made of it in the parable, if truly 
yielded to and acted on, would change our modern 
Christianity. God has created us for fruit-bearing, 
and, as Husbandman, fits us perfectly for it. Christ 
the Vine supplies all the life and strength we need. 
Abiding in Christ, close union to Christ, maintained in 
direct daily intercourse, will secure abundant fruit. A 
life of love and beneficence, a life given up to^the wel- 
fare of others, is to be, not the end, but the beginning 
of our Christian crusade. As a race of Christians is 
trained, who in the childlike simplicity and restfulness 
of a faith that joyfully counts upon Christ to work all 



THE FRUIT OF THE VINE. 19 

this in them, the preaching: "Every branch in Me that 
beareth not fruit, He taketh away," will make itself felt 
among the fruitless professors. For the simple reason, 
that the preaching can thus appeal to the witnesses who 
prove that Christ does make His people fruitful branches, 
Christ's solemn words about " no fruit " will come with 
the power of conviction and judgment, and waken in all 
the overpowering conviction: The only test for the 
judgment day will be — fruit. 



20 THE FBUIT OF THE VINE. 



III. MORE FRUIT. 

'* Every branch that beareth fruit, He cleanse th it, that it may 
bring forth more fruit." — John xv. 2. 

How clear that tlie heart of the Father, the Divine 
Husbandman, is set on Fruit! In the whole parable 
Christ does not speak of an^^thing that the Husbandman 
seeks or does, but this one thing — He seeks more fruit, 
and directs His pruning or cleansing to this one end. 
As surely as His judgment takes away entirely the 
branch that bears no fruit. His judgment takes away 
whatever hinders the fruit-bearing. He prunes and cuts 
the branch that bears fruit, that it may bring forth more 
fruit. The Husbandman who made us branches of the 
Vine, and on whom we are entirely dependent for our 
fruit — let us seek to get into His mind and will. Not 
till fruit has exactly the same place in our heart as in 
His, not till we long for More Fruit as much as He 
does, not till we seek the cleansing as earnestly as He 
does, can we fully please Him, or taste the blessedness 
of the life He calls us to. 

I am deeply persuaded that our Christian life, that 
the welfare of the Church and its power to bless, depend 
far more upon our taking God's view of the supreme 
importance of fruit-bearing than we think. Nothing is 
more needful than that the Church should learn, in all 
her preaching of redemption, to teach all to give fruit 
the place in their heart that it has in God's. I cannot 
repeat too often, and cannot beg too earnestly that all 



THE FRUIT OF THE VINE, 21 

would lay it to heart, what the parable of the Branch is 
meant to teach. As entirely as the vine, so the branch 
too exists only for fruit. As entirely as the natural 
branch, the believer as branch in the Heavenly Vine, 
has his place only to bear fruit for the salvation of sin- 
ners. Yea, more, as entirely and exclusively as Christ 
Himself was made a Vine, are we made branches, that 
we may carry God's Life and Love to men. God ever 
seeks one thing — "Fruit," "More Fruit." 

This is not the ordinary view of the Christian's call- 
ing. According to that, our salvation is the chief thing. 
Fruit is a secondary matter — most desirable and needful 
as an evidence of being saved, as a proof of our grati- 
tude, a mark of our meetness for heaven. But it is 
not regarded as the one thing for which we were made 
branches in Christ, the one sole aim and glory of the 
Christian life. The consequences of this mistake are 
terrible. The Church finds it impossible to wake up 
the majority of her members to take any real part in 
making Christ know^n to the heathen. The failure of 
our prayer and effort to secure the joy and strength of 
the life of faith is simply owing to this root-evil — we 
want it, in the first place, for ourselves more than for 
others. 

A SELFISH RELIGION MAKES SELFISH MEN, 

and the fruits of self and the flesh flourish everywhere. 
Even Christians who do work for God suffer greatly from 
not being possessed of God's thought, and do not live in 
the glad assurance that if fruit, God-given fruit, be the 
one object the Husbandman has, we can confidently 
expect to bear all the fruit He asks of us. The law of 
self-sacrifice, the branch spending and being spent for 



22 THE FRUIT OF THE VINE, 

the sake of its fruit, the fellowship with Christ in His 
crucifixion spirit, is not known in its power. Fruit is 
to be borne in subordination to our will and care and 
pleasure. "Fruit," "More Fruit," is not the Divine 
inspiration, the passion of our lives. 

"Every branch that beareth fruit. He cleanseth, that 
it may bring forth more fruit." 

Oh, our Father! open oar ears and hearts to hearken 
to Thy Beloved Son, as He speaks of Thy desire for 
more fruit. 

God desires more fruit. That may mean very different 
things to different people. To some it speaks of external 
work. The proportion of time and interest and money 
you give to God and His work in the world is so small, 
that the Father is not satisfied. You do as much work 
as you think your duty, as satisfies your conscience, as 
is conformable with your enjoyment of the world and 
pleasing self; you never dreamt of thinking, perhaps 
you never heard it preached, that, as a branch, all your 
energy, all your heart, all your love and delight ought 
to be the service of Christ, the bearing fruit for the life 
of men. God is calling for more fruit. 

With others there is no lack of work. Some have 
given their life to it. Some are over-working, and 
exhausting themselves, more than the Father loves to 
see. And yet He says: "More Fruit!" He looks at 
the disposition and temper, and sees the fruits of the 
Spirit, love, and joy, and meekness, and humility sadly 
lacking. The personal fellowship w^ith Christ, the 
obedience and surrender of the whole being to Him, the 
life entirely given up for men, these have not their fruit 
unto holiness, and He calls : " My child! less work, more 
fruit!" 



THE FRUIT OF TEE VINE, 23 

With others, again, the message "More Fruit" points 
to wider circles of interest for which He would win their 
heart. It is possible to be very earnest about our little 
church, or some local interest of real importance, in 
which selfishness is in danger of being secretly fostered. 
God calls us in love and prayer and help to remember 
that the whole world is given to Christ, and has a right 
to know of Him, and has been entrusted to His Church. 
Every member of the body, while fulfilling its special 
duties, has time and strength and will find a rich bless- 
ing in enlarging its heart to love and take in all Christ 
loves and seeks to save. ''^lore Fruit'' is God's call to 
many a selfish church to live for missions. 

There are others to whom the word may have still 
deeper meaning. In external work, in personal disposi- 
tion and character, in large-hearted sympathy with all 
Christ's interests, these may appear to be all that can 
be looked for, while something else is lacking — the 
fruit which God is Avilling to give when His Spirit and 
Power are truly waited for and received. The " More 
Fruit " means indeed more of saving power in our min- 
istry of love, more intense and abiding influence in those 
around us. It is not the word of a taskmaster who asks 
what we cannot give. It is the purpose of a Father, 
who in it holds out to us the higher blessing He is wait- 
ing to bestow. 

God prepares for more fruit. ' ' Every branch that bear- 
eth fruit He cleanseth it, that it may bring forth more 
fruit. "^ There is not a plant which so soon runs into 
wild wood, and needs such merciless and unceasing 
pruning, as the vine. The pruning or cleansing is not 
the removal of any extraneous evil hindering the growth. 

* See The Mystery of the True Vine, p. 40. 



24 THE FRUIT OF THE VINE, 

It is the keeping clown of excessive growth, the cutting 
off of the long shoots of the previous year, the removal 
of something that has been produced by the life of the 
vine itself. The cleansing takes away what is the proof 
of a vigorous growth, the honest, healthy wood of the 
vine. And why? Because it would consume too macli 
of the sap of the vine on itself, and draw it away from 
its main object, the bringing forth of fruit. The 
branches, sometimes eight and ten feet long, are cut 
down to the least possible size, one or two inches, that 
the sap may be concentrated and the fruit be rich and 
large. 

"Every branch that beareth fruit, the husbandman 
cleanseth, that it may bring forth more fruit." 

THE GREAT HINDRAXCE IX THE VINE TO FRUIT-BEARIX(i 
IS WOOD-BEARING; 

the unrestrained activity of the branch asserting itself, 
and seeking to grow large. Tlie only means for securing 
much fruit, is keeping it small, by cutting away all the 
growth of its own self-will. The great hindrance in the 
life of the Christian worker is self-will and self-assertion. 
It is in the very desire to serve God, in the midst of 
diligence and activity in His work, that our own will 
gets strengthened, and we trust in what we are and do. 
Xo watchfulness or effort on our part can save us from 
this : it is God ivho must cleanse the branches. He alone 
can reveal to us how much there is of self-will and self- 
confidence, and how^ terribly it hinders our bearing fruit. 
He alone can deliver from it, in humbling us under a 
sense of the impotence and sinfulness of the self-life, 
in leading us to consent to our weakness, and to enter 



THE FRUIT OF THE VINE. 25 

into the death of Christ, as the only way to live unto 
God. 

God asks more fruit. He not only desires it, and pro- 
vides for it, He speaks to us of it and claims our intel- 
ligent, hearty consent and co-operation. The life of 
God in grace does not act as in nature, as an unconscious 
compulsion. God appeals to our will, to our heart. He 
asks the two things we have spoken of. 

He asks for more fruit. He asks that we think of 
His one object with us, of His great desire to see more 
fruit, and that we set our heart upon it even as He does. 

As we do this, and feel how impossible it is for us to 
attain to it, we shall learn to believe that He Himself 
will give us the grace, the quickened life, the abundant 
life, for the more abundant fruit-bearing. Our thought 
of His desiring more fruit will not only teach us what we 
ought to desire, but draw us to give ourselves up to wait 
on Him in the assurance that He will work it in us. 

He asks for more fruit. He asks that we yield our- 
selves to His pruning, that we see how much there is of 
self, that we confess that this is the one great hindrance 
to His working through us, that we recognise that self 
cannot cleanse or kill self, and begin to desire and 
implore of Him, as His choicest mercy, that He stretch 
out His knife and purge us. 

(rod'.s pruning knife is His Word, " sharper than any 
two-edged sword, a discerner of the thoughts and intents 
of the heart.'' Christ says: "Ye are clean through the 
word I have spoken to you." We know how cutting, 
how piercing, many of these words were that He had 
spoken to the disciples. Think of His conditions of 
discipleship : "He that loveth father or mother more 
than Me, he that taketh not his cross — is not ivorthy of 



26 THE FRUIT OF THE VINE. 

Me,^^ thrice repeated (Matt. x. 87, 38). "If any man 
come to Me and hate not his father, yea, and his own 
life also, and forsake not all he hath, he cannot be My 
disciple,'' thrice repeated (Luke xiv. 26-33). Think of 
all his heart-searching teaching on humility and love, 
and you will feel how God cleansed them through Christ's 
Word. 

Oh! let us begin and plead with God for His Knife, 
for Himself to cleanse us. We may study the Word, 
and strive to apply it — that cannot cleanse us. The 
Living God, the Holy One who cleanses with the Spirit 
of Burning, He must do it. 

Christian worker! are you yielding everything of self 
to God for Him to cut away, and cleanse with His 
Divine circumcision? Oh! are there not Christians 
praying for more fruit, praying even for the Hol}^ Ghost 
and powder from above, and who know not w^hat it is to 
yield to the humbling, cleansing, slaying power of God's 
holiness? 

Let us enter into His presence and give Him the two 
things He asks — a heart set upon more fruit, a will 
yielded up to Him to be pruned and purged and made 
free from self, and to be the living channel for the Life 
and Spirit of the Vine only and wholly to possess and 
use. 

Nothing can possibly fulfil the Father's desire or 
yours for more fruit, but a full and a daily surrender to 
the Divine cleansing by God Himself. It is not till a 
deep longing for this Divine cleansing fills the Church, 
that the desire for more fruit can be realised to any large 
extent. Let God's call for more fruit find its response 
in the cry for full cleansing. 



I 



THE FRUIT OF THE VINE. 27 



IV. MUCH FRUIT. 

' "He that abideth in Me, and I in Him, the same bringeth forth 
much fruit ; for apart from Me ye can do nothing" (verse 5). 

"Herein is My Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit, and ye 
shall be My disciples" (verse 8). 

Here we are led on a step further : the Husbandman 
is not content unless the " more fruit '' becomes " much 
fruit." What new emphasis this gives to the central 
thought of the parable and of the true Christian life, that 
bearing fruit for the life and salvation of men is to be 
the one object of existence. It is only as Christians give 
themselves up to this, that the need and the meaning 
and the reality of abiding in Christ can be apprehended. 
How earnestly we need to pray that God may grant, in 
the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, enlightened eyes of 
the heart that we may know the "hope of our calling," 
to bear much fruit. 

Our Lord twice speaks of the "much fruit." He first 
tells how naturally it will come to them who abide in 
Him. Then He gives the double motive for it: the 
Father will be glorified, and we shall be true disciples. 
Let us study the call to bear much fruit, as it points to 
Christ, and our life of abiding in Him; to the Father, 
and our glorifying Him; to ourselves, and our becoming 

true disciples. 

I. 

"As the branch cannot bear fruit except it abide in 
the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in Me." " JTe 
that abideth in Me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth 



28 THE FRUIT OF THE VINE. 

much fruit ; for apart from Me ye can do nothing." We 
have seen what a branch is : an outgrowth of the vine, 
partaker of its life, begotten and maintained as part of 
itself to afford a channel through which it can bring forth 
its grapes. And we regard nothing as more natural, or 
so much a matter of course, about which there cannot 
be a moment's doubt, as that the branch cannot bear 
fruit except it abide in the vine. The union with the 
vine must be continual and unbroken if the vine is 
unceasingly to maintain its suppl}' of sap for the bear- 
ing and ripening of the fruit. Abiding in the vine is the 
one indispensable condition of being a living, healthy, 
fruit-bearing branch. 

Every believer is a branch, an outgrowth of the 
Heavenly Vine, begotten and maintained as part of 
itself, with the one view of having a channel through 
which it can bring forth its life-giving fruit for the sal- 
vation of men. It is only as this nature and character 
of. the branch is understood and accepted, that Christ's 
call to abide in Him can be apprehended. All attempts 
to enjoy the blessing of abiding will be futile as long as 
the first thought is our own happiness or holiness. 
Thousands may find in this truth the explanation of the 
failure of their many efforts and prayers to be kept 
abiding. A branch is only a means to an end; an in- 
strument for the realisation of the purpose of the vine. 
Abiding is only a means to an end; the one only way in 
which the union of the vine and branch can be main- 
tained for the realisation of their common object. Just 
in such measure as the believer enters into God's thought 
concerning himself as a branch, and heartily responds to 
it, will there come the insight into the possibility, the 
certainty, the blessedness of abiding. 



THE FRUIT OF THE VINE. 29 

It is here where our whole modern Christianity needs 
to be reconstructed. The Church must preach the great 
truth that every branch is to bear fruit because Christ 
needs him, and chose him for this purpose"^ and because 
this alone is the true life of Christ in us. Bringing 
forth fruit, doing work for Christ, living to save and 
bless men, must not be regarded as a matter of choice, 
or special devotion, or as the payment of a debt of grati- 
tude: it is the one aim of redemption. It is the one 
proof that God is having His way with us, that the life 
of God is taking full possession of us, that we are, like 
Him, finding our joy in beneficence and love. Would 
God that believers would only take time to think what 
a branch is ! They would begin to see — I repeat of set 
purpose what I have said before — and be amazed that 
they diJ not sooner see it, that the Heavenly Vine exists 
as absolutely as the vine on earth only for bearing fruit, 
that the branch exists just as much as the vine itself 
only for bearing fruit, and that the believer lives as abso- 
lutely and exclusively as Christ Himself for bearing fruit, 
and bringing Ood^s life and salvation to men. 

The power to abide depends entirely on our accepting 
our calling as branches. It is the branch, wholly 
devoted to the vine and to fruit-bearing, that is allowed, 
that is able, to abide. The surrender to be a branch in 
the fidl meaning in which Christ uses the word, will give a 
wonderful new light and force to the word "Abide,^^ It 
will then mean simply: maintain your place and posi- 
tion as a branch; live only and entirely to let Christ, 
through you, give life to the perishing. The believer 
who each morning says to his Lord that he comes afresh 
to yield himself as a branch to bear much fruit, will feel 
how utterly impotent he is of himself to do this — as 



30 THE FRUIT OF THE VINE. 

impotent as the branch "to bear fruit of itself." How 
sure and abundant "the supply of the Spirit'' of the 
Heavenly Vine is that he may count on, and how simple 
it is, in view of these two truths, to continue abiding, to 
continue in the life of absolute surrender and unceasing, 
believing dependence. 

Christ said: "If ye keep My commandments, ye shall 
abide in My love, even as I kept My Father's command- 
ments, and abide in His love." Christ's abiding in God's 
love was through abiding in His will to save the world; 
our abiding in Christ's will to save men, giving ourselves 
up in obedience to live for them, will be our abiding in 
His love. We shall learn to count it our highest privi- 
lege each day to lose our life in His life, and our will in 
His will, and we shall, like Him, bear much fruit. "He 
that abideth in Me, and I in him, beareth much fruit." 
Abiding in Christ, going out of ourselves and everything 
to be entirely identified with Him in His life of saving 
men, losing and giving up every interest for the sake of 
serving Him as a branch, and of having Him abide in 
us, will infallibly make us fruitful branches. It will no 
longer be a thing of inward strain or effort, but the sim- 
plicity and ease of the fruit-bearing of the natural branch 
will be transfigured into the rest and joy and love through 
which He brings forth His fruit in us. "He that abid- 
eth in Me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much 
fruit." 

II. 

" Herein is My Father' glorified, that ye hear much fruit. ^^ 
This is Christ's second thought concerning the "much 
fruit." 

And how does it glorify the Father? In the same 



THE FRUIT OF THE VINE, 31 

sense in which it is said, '^ The heavens declare the glory 
of God." They do this effectually by simply showing 
forth what God is doing through them, yielding them- 
selves to His Divine Power that maintains them and 
gives them their beauty. God gives of His glory unto 
them, and by what they are and do in virtue of God's 
power they manifest His glory. 

Even so Christ glorified the Father on earth. He not 
only did the Father's will. He might have done that, 
and men might have thought that He did it by His own 
power. How careful He was to say again and again 
that He did nothing of Himself, that His words and works 
were all of the Father w^ho dwelt in Him. And con- 
tinually j^eople glorified God, when they saw His mighty 
deeds. In His great Intercessory Prayer our Lord said: 
"Father! glorify Thy Son, that Thy Son may glorify 
Thee." It was only if and as the Father gave His glory 
to the Son, that the Son could glorify Him — that is, 
could show forth His glory. 

In no other way can the Father be glorified by us. 
We cannot cause or create any new glory for God: as 
God, all glory is His. ''Thine is the glory." But we 
can yield ourselves to God to work in us, and let men 
see in us how glorious He is, and how gloriously He 
works. ''Herein is My Father, the Husbandman, glori- 
fied, if ye bear much fruit." The "much fruit" is the 
proof of how wise and successful the Husbandman is. 
As long as we bear little fruit, and our Christian life 
does not differ very greatly from others around us, men 
attribute our work to natural character or favourable 
circumstances, or the beneficent influence of our religious 
beliefs. But when in the heavenliness of our life, and 
in abounding fruitfulness, proof is given of something 



32 THE FRUIT OF THE VINE. 

supernatural, men are compelled to say: This is the 
Lord's doing; and God is glorified. 

Christ sets this before His disciples as a distinct 
object. That God might be glorified was His one object : 
He wants it to be ours. That God can only be glorified 
by an entire devotion, and the giving up of the whole 
life for Him to w^ork in, was what His life and death 
proved. He wants us equally to prove it. As the Vine 
of God's planting, He lived every moment to bear much 
fruit to the glory of the Father. As the Branches of 
God's right hand, as the Branches of Himself, the Heav- 
enly Vine, Christ counts upon us equally to seek nothing 
less, to seek nothing else. The whole life of the Vine 
and its fruit is to the glory of the Father ; the whole life 
of the Branch need be, may be, nothing less. 

Let us pause, and I3ray, and take it in: With God the 
Husbandman working in me according to the riches of 
glory, with Christ the Vine strengthening me according 
to the glory of His power, I can bring forth much fruit. 
Let me believe in the glory of what the God of glory will 
do in me, and yield myself each morning to show forth 
His glory in me: I shall learn to abide in Christ, and 
bring forth much fruit. 

III. 

^^ Bear muchf ruit; so shall ye be My disciples.''^ Much 
fruit makes us disciples, true disciples such as Christ 
would have us. 

There are many sorts of disciples — sickly, feeble, 
half-hearted, unfaithful disci]3les. There are disciples 
worthy the name — men and women such as Christ would 
have them be, His whole-hearted followers, such as He 



THE FRUIT OF THE VINE. 33 

calls disciples. They are those who bear much fruit, to 
the glory of the Father, branches who bear the likeness 
to the Vine, and prove that they possess its very nature. 

How little this is realised in the Church of Christ, 
that much fruit is the mark of true discipleship. We have 
so many excuses for our feebleness and lack of fruit, we 
are so accustomed to the power of sin and the world, so 
satisfied with the tokens of good amid the prevailing low 
standards, that the thought of bearing much fruit to win 
Christ's approval, as true disciples hardly enters the mind 
of many. And yet, if the parable of the Vine means any- 
thing, it means this, that every branch can and must hear 
much fruit. The fruit may be very different: in one 
patient suffering, in another active service and self- 
sacrifice, in some 23ersevering intercession, in others a 
manifest humility, and gentleness, and heavenly-minded- 
ness; but in all much fruit — this is what abiding in 
Christ inevitably secures, what glorifies the Father, 
what gives as the assurance that we are well-pleasing to 
the Master. Surely the question ought to come home 
to each of us individually: Am I bearing much fruit? 
At least, am I seeking it with my whole heart? 

"Much fruit." What we truly desire, what we seek 
with the whole lieart, we sacrifice everything for. Let 
us be still in the presence of our Lord, and repeat to 
ourselves the great thoughts His words suggest. He is 
the Vine of heaven, come to earth to bring the fruit, the 
life of heaven, to men. He has brought it to me. He 
has made me a branch, to impart that life through me 
and the fruit I bear. He has appointed me and fitted 
me for bearing much fruit. By the glory of the Father, 
by the blessedness of an unbroken abiding in Him, by 
the honour of being His true disciple. He pleads with 



34 THE FRUIT OF THE VINE, 

me to bear much fruit. He asks nothing but that I yield 
myself wholly to Him, that day by day I depend on Him 
and the Father to do their perfect, mighty work in me. 
Shall not I, whatever others do — shall not I consent 
and say : Lord ! here I am, to be only and wholly, to be 
hourly and uninterruptedly, a branch in Thee, abiding 
in close communion, only seeking to know and do Thy 
will, and ever depending on Thee in the confident assur- 
ance that Thou wilt make me a Branch worthy of Thy- 
self, bearing much fruit. 



THE FRUIT OF THE VINE. 35 



y. ABIDING FRUIT. 

^' Ye did not choose Me, but I chose you, and appointed you, 
that ye should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should abide." 
— John xv. 16. 

^' Fruit," "More Fruit," "Much Fruit," Abiding 
Fruit! How the heart of Christ is set upon fruit! And 
it is not only quantity that He seeks, but quality too; 
not only much fruit, but fruit that may abide. And He 
speaks these words that by the Holy Spirit His mind 
may enter into us, and fruit take the same place in our 
heart that it has in His. 

" That your fruit should abide,^^ The word warns 
against a possible, an imminent danger. When trees 
are not perfectly healthy, or are suffering from drought, 
they sometimes drop their fruit. The trees may bear 
much fruit, but are not able to ripen it: the fruit does 
not abide. Or there may be fruit that, when once ripe, 
will not keep: it does not abide. It must be used at 
once, while other sorts will keep, and can bear being 
carried far, or can be stored for use in winter. Or, 
again, there are trees that bear fruit only for a few 
years, and then fail, while others continue fruit-bearing 
till old age : then fruit abides as long as they live. 

These failures in Nature have their counterpart in the 
Kingdom of Grace. Both in individuals and in Churches 
fruit may often be found that does not abide. You see 
Christians who begin well and are very zealous in their 
work for God, but it does not last: they do not bring 



36 THE FBUIT OF THE VIXE, 

their fruit to perfection. As the years go on there is 
no maturity or mellowness about it. The influence they 
exert is not permanent, the result of their work is a 
transient impression, nothing abiding. In course of 
time they grow weary and faint; they do not "bring 
forth fruit in old age." 

What is seen in individuals is often the mark of whole 
churches and their services. In the impressions made 
by the preaching, in the influence exerted by the Sunday 
school, even in the results of special missions or revival 
services, little abiding fruit is seen. Christ meant that 
the branch that abides in Him should bear fruit that 
abides, should have permanent results for time and 
eternity. Where the connection between Christ and the 
believer is close and the communication unceasing, the 
power and reality of the Divine life in the Vine, flowing 
through the branch, is to be seen in the fruit; that work 
in its permanence is to bear the stamp of eternity. 

*^The world passeth away, and the lust thereof; but 
he that doeth the will of God,'' and what he doeth, 
"abideth for ever." There is a religion that is in har- 
mony with the spirit and the wisdom of the world, and 
makes a fair show in the flesh, but speedily fades and 
fails. There is a religion which has its root in God and 
Christ, which can resist temptation and overcome the 
world, because it is of the faith which does not " stand 
in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God." Let 
us listen to what our Lord has to teach us about the fruit 
that abides, and learn from Him how we can bear it. 



'' I appointed you that ye should go, and bear fruit, and 
that your fruit should abide,'' Here Christ speaks of our 



I 



THE FRUIT OF THE VINE. 37 

fruit abiding as the result of our being appointed by 
Him to bear fruit. We speak of a man who has received 
an appointment to an important spot here on earth, lirst 
accepting it, then taking it up, and then giving his time 
and his life to the fulfilment of its duties. On his 
faithfulness depends his influence and his promotion. 
One great secret of our fruit abiding is, that we know 
that Christ has appointed us to bear fruit, and that with 
our whole heart we accept and take up the appointment. 
It is the Christian who indeed lives as one " appointed 
to bear fruit,'' whose fruit will abide. 

But is not this what every earnest minister and worker 
believes, and proves that he believes by the very fact of 
his taking up Christian work? I fear not. Let us re- 
member what has been spoken of in a previous chapter, 
that there are two different points of view from which 
the bearing of fruit may be regarded. 

Some realise, or seek to realise, that their appoint- 
ment of Christ to bear fruit is just as clear and simple 
and absolute as that of the man whom the Queen appoints 
to be a governor, or an officer in the army : it implies 
his giving his whole time and attention to this one 
thing; he lives for it. 

Others think that such an entire devotion to fruit- 
bearing is only expected of those who are set apart for 
the ministry, or who choose thus to live. They have 
never seen that the relation between the branch and the 
fruit is universal and unchangeable. 

It is easy to understand what the different effect will 
be of these two modes of looking at fruit-bearing. In 
the one case a man's care and unceasing prayer will be 
to bear fruit, more fruit, much fruit, abiding fruit. 
Everything will be subordinated to this : for this alone 



38 



THE FRUIT OF THE VIXE. 



he lives. In the other he lives for himself in the first 
place. Whether in the pursuit of earthly or heavenly 
things, self-interest is his chief aim and motive, and 
fruit takes the second place, a part of what he chooses 
to seek. The former view leads a man to a life of abso- 
lute consecration and unceasing dependence. The latter 
leaves abundant room for self and its activity. 

^'I appointed you that ye should go, and bear fruit, 
and that your fruit should abide.'' Shall we not ask 
that this word '^ appointed to bear fruit " may be as a 
sharp two-edged sword, cleaving us as branches from all 
that is of self? We have more than once said, the branch 
of the Heavenly Vine exists as exclusively and absolutely for 
the bearing of fruit as does the natural vine-branch, or as 
does the Heavenly Vine Himself It is only the Holy 
Spirit that can make the thought a living truth within 
us, so that we truly feel as closely united to Christ, as 
entirely devoted to Him, as a branch on earth is to its 
vine. Let us wait in earnest prayer for the Holy Spirit 
to work this in us ; let us day by day yield ourselves to 
the Living Christ as "appointed to bear fruit." He will 
give us the living spiritual consciousness of our calling, 
and the power to fulfil it. That abiding conviction will 
be the first step towards abiding fruit. 



II. 



" Ye did not choose me, but I chose you, and appointed 
you, that ye should go and bear fruit." Here is a second 
thought. 

The knowledge that we have been "appointed" to 
bear fruit is a mighty power; but there is something 
deeper. Christ points to the Divine origin of our call- 



I 



THE FRUIT OF THE VINE, 39 

ing to bear fruit. It might have been that we had chosen 
Him as Lord, and offered ourselves for His service. The 
appointment would then have had its rise in our will. 
But no — " Ye did not choose Me, but I chose you.'' As 
little as a branch chooses the vine on which it grows, 
did we first seek or choose Christ. As each vine brings 
forth and sets the branch in the place it chooses, so each 
branch in Christ has become such in virtue of His elec- 
tion. To believe this with our whole heart, to allow the 
Holy Spirit to work this faith into our inmost being, is 
of more practical consequence for the Christian life than 
we think. It will show us how our being "appointed to 
bear fruit " has its root in the eternal purpose of God, 
and how in that we have the security for our being able 
to fulfil its requirement. 

Christ chose us "according to the purpose of Him who 
worketh all things after the counsel of His own will." 
The God who has purposed is the God who also performs. 
He carries out His purpose Himself by working all that 
He has willed. He has given man, redeemed man espe- 
cially, the wonderful power of willing, and so within 
certain limits hindering or serving Him. Whenever we 
enter into His will and give ourselves up to it, then we 
can count upon it that He will Himself, through Christ, 
work in us all that is well pleasing in His sight, all that 
He would really have each of us be. 

In this light the doctrine of election becomes one of 
the utmost practical importance and of deep spiritual 
quickening and fruitfulness. As in adoring faith I see 
my personal life embraced in God's eternal purpose in 
Christ, as the heavenly truth possesses me that I have 
been appointed to bear fruit, not in virtue of my fitness 
or my having offered myself for it, but because God and 



40 THE FRUIT OF THE VINE. 

Christ saw fit to choose me for it, the call to give myself 
up to live alone for this comes with irresistible urgency, 
and the confidence is begotten that I can bear just as 
much fruit as God would have me do. His election does 
no violence to my liberty or my will; its Divine glory 
enlightens and draws and strengthens my will to yield 
itself wholly to the mighty power of the good and per- 
fect Will. I am a branch chosen and apppointed by the 
Vine to bear fruit. I can count on Him to work all in me 
that He wishes me to be. 

III. 

" That your fruit may abide.'^ The word abide suggests 
a third lesson. Christ has used it ten times in the para- 
ble already of our abiding in Him and His love, and of 
Himself and His joy abiding in us. Here He uses it of 
our fruit abiding. The connection is evident. The fruit 
of a tree depends upon its life. As our life abides in 
Him, our fruit will abide. The more entirel}^ it is 
Christ's own fruit, His working in us, the more the 
power of His unchangeable life will be manifest in it. 
Fruit that abides comes from a branch that abides. 

This brings us back to the great lesson of the parable 
— "Abide in me, and I in you.'' It is the Christian 
worker, who intensely and entirely abides in Christ, who 
turns away from everything to take up his election and 
appointment to go and bear fruit, and makes it the first, 
the one, the only thing he lives for, to whom the secret 
of abiding fruit will be imparted. There may be others 
with greater gifts to whom apparently more visible fruit 
is given : the abiding fruit, as it will be seen in the light 
of eternity, will be according to the abiding life of the 
Vine in which it abides. 



THE FRUIT OF THE VINE, 41 

What a solemn, blessed call to all who would be true 
branches of the True Vine, as true as the Vine is true, 
true disciples, bearing much abiding fruit. Our whole 
life must be abiding in Christ, as simply, as naturally, 
as exclusively as yonder branch abides in its vine. I 
trust we begin to see more what abiding means. It 
means making Christ everything for every moment, hat- 
ing and losing our life, forsaking all to follow Him, to 
be with Him, near Him, in Him, perfectly like Him. 

And can we thus abide? Eather, how can w^e not, if 
we believe in and yield to the Blessed Holy Spirit, who 
has been given us to make Christ all to us and in us that 
the Father meant Him to be. As the branch is still and 
waits and receives what the vine gives, let us be still in 
the faith that the Holy Spirit is in us. In ever drawing 
nigh to Christ, and in all our desire after Him, let us 
count upon the Holy Spirit to enable us to believe and 
abide as we should. Let us cry mightily to God ^'to 
srengthen us with might by His Spirit in the inner 
man," to "fill us with the Spirit." Let us take time 
each day to believe that as we yield ourselves to abide, 
Christ does abide in us ; that He dwells in our heart by 
faith. We shall become increasingly sure that our fruit 
is from Him, that He Himself is working in us, and that 
our fruit will abide. The more of the abiding life, the 
unchangeable eternal life, the more of abiding fruit, 
with the power of eternity in it. 

'' That your fruit may abide.^^ In view of so much 
work of which the fruit is so short-lived, in view of so 
many backsliders, of Christians who " go backward and 
not forward," because "they have lost their first love," 
is not the great need of the Church in its members and 
converts, in Christian and heathen lands, the one word, 



42 THE FRUIT OF THE VIJVE, 

"tliat your fruit may abide ^^? Let each of us pray for 
it and live for it. As we hear of souls willing, some- 
times hungering, to know of Christ and His full salva- 
tion, let us pray that we may not only give them words 
and thoughts that are true, but may impart to them the 
very thing they seek — may give them the heavenly fruit 
of the heavenly Vine. This can be as day by day, it is 
our first care to be full of Christ, to let Him live and 
work in us. The branch that abides in Him, truly, 
closely, fully, wholly, will bear fruit that abides, be- 
cause the very life of Christ brings it forth. 



THE FRUIT OF THE VINE, 43 



VI. FKUIT AND PRAYER. 

"Ye did not choose Me, but I chose you, and appointed you, 
that ye should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should abide : 
that whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in My Name, He may 
give it you." — John xv. 16. 

In these the closing words of the parable, Christ 
speaks of two things to which He has chosen and 
appointed His disciples. The one is that they should 
bear fruit that abides ; the other, that they should pray 
prayer that prevails. Fruit on earth that carries in it 
real power to prevail with men, prayer in heaven that 
carries in it power to prevail with God — such is the aim 
and purpose, such will be the outcome to those who in 
simple faith make their election and appointment sure. 

Abiding fruit for men, prevailing prayer with God — 
it is not difficult to see the connection. Christ is not 
speaking here of the prayer that is needed for and before 
fruit -bearing. As an exercise of the spiritual life, as a 
means of obtaining grace for the abiding and the fruit- 
fulness, such prayer is unspeakably needed and blessed. 
I^evertheless it is not the highest form of prayer, and, 
if we confine ourselves to it, the result will be a failure 
in the higher regions of spiritual activity, and in the 
power to grasp fully the higher prayer promises. Read 
the text carefully, and you see at once Christ speaks of a 
power of prevailing prayer that comes with and after 
fruit, and is in part a reward for it. It is in intercessory 
prayer that the Christian life reaches its full maturity 



44 



THE FRUIT OF THE VINE. 



and exercises its highest power. It is the believer who 
has given himself wholly to the life of abiding and fruit- 
bearing, and who bears fruit that abides, to whom the 
power will come fully to take in and avail himself of 
the promise: "I have appointed you that ye should bear 
fruit, and that your fruit may abide : that ivhatsoever ye 
shall ask of the Father in My name, He may give it you.''- 

This is the second time Christ speaks of prayer in the 
parable. He said, ^^He that abideth in Me, the same 
bringeth forth much fruit.'' '^If ye abide in Me, ye 
shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you." 
The abiding was to bring the double blessing — power to 
bear much fruit, power to prevail in prayer. The close 
union to Christ manifests itself in two ways — on earth 
in the outflow of His life and strength as fruit for men; 
in heaven as power in His name to obtain for men from 
God what we will. The same spirit of devotion to the 
glory of God and the welfare of men that manifests itself 
in seeking to be a branch, entirely given up to Christ, 
through which He can bear fruit, feels constrained and 
has confidence to enter boldly and ask great things of 
God. Not every minister or worker who labours dili- 
gently and earnestly, but every one who works in the 
true branch-like dependence on Christ and direct obedi- 
ence to His will, will find the liberty for the ministry of 
intercession. This is the deep and full meaning of the 
words so often connected — Working and Praying. 

It is of consequence that we realise the connection 
between the two. Look at our Lord Jesus. His work 
of redemption on earth is the basis and the strength of 
His w^ork of intercession in heaven. In giving Himself 
up to God for men, He proves Himself worthy of having 
the power of unlimited intercession put into His hands. 



THE FEUIT OF THE VINE, 46 

Unmeasured devotion to God and men, the most com- 
plete self-sacrifice on their account, was His preparation 
for receiving the keys of the Kingdom and the fulfilment 
of the promise, " Ask of Me, and I will give Thee." He 
submitted Himself to the law under which His people 
stood, and opened the way for their sharing with Him 
in His power. There is for them no other way. It is 
easy to pray, as long as we have not given ourselves to 
be wholly branches, to bear much fruit; but the prayer 
will avail little. Christ's words are plain and solemnly 
true : " I have appointed you that ye should go and bear 
fruit, and that your fruit should abide: that whatsoever 
ye shall ask of the Father in My name, He may give it 
you.'' 

"We must remember," says Mr. Coillard in his "On 
THE Threshold of Central Africa," "that it was 
not by interceding for the world in glory that Jesus 
saved it. He gave Himself. Our prayers for the evan- 
gelisation of the world are a bitter irony so long as we 
only give of our superfluity, and draw back before the 
sacrifice of ourselves.^^ 



The chief privilege of the branch life, the highest exercise 
of its power, is intercession. Such is the first thought 
suggested. 

It cannot be otherwise. In our abiding and fruit- 
bearing we have to do more directly with Christ the 
Vine. But He wants to lead us on to such a personal 
access to and intercourse with the Father as He Him- 
self enjoyed: "At that day ye shall ask in My name; 
and I say not I will pray the Father for you; for the 
Father Himself loveth you." Intercession is His crown- 



46 THE FRUIT OF THE VINE. 

ing glory, the work He does upon the throne. For us 
to have access to God, to have power with God, to ask 
whatsoever we will, and have it given — this is the glory 
that excelleth. To enter within the veil and dwell there, 
there to enter into God's mind and love and promises, 
thence to look out upon the world and its needs, then 
every day to offer ourselves to God for men, and then to 
pray in power for the Spirit' for ourselves and those 
around us — this is the true life in Christ Jesus. 

This is the gift of which the Church so greatly needs 
a larger measure. It is the lack of this boldness and 
perseverance of intercession that takes the, ''Ask what- 
soever ye will, and it shall he done unto you, " in simple 
earnest, and seeks to prove its truth to the utmost, that 
is the cause of our lack of power. Shall we not gird 
ourselves to take up our double appointment, " that ye 
bear fruit that shall abide: that whatsoever ye shall ask 
of the Father in My name. He may do it " ? Shall we 
not rather — for we have often done our utmost to take 
hold of these promises — shall we not rather ask and 
trust, and in stillness wait for the Holy Spirit to give 
the very truth and spirit of these words as a living fire 
within us, so that it be not so much a matter of memory 
or purpose, but the outcome of an inward and spon- 
taneous life power, to bear, abiding fruit that we may 
pray prevailing prayer ? To the soul abiding in Christ 
the devotion to much fruit-bearing for men will give the 
power for much intercourse with God. 

II. 

This will be our second lesson : Faithfulness in abiding 
and fruit-hearing is the indispensable condition ofpozver in 
intercession. 



THE FEU IT OF THE VINE, 47 

" Thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will set 
thee over many things " — this is the law of the King- 
dom. It is the man who is faithful over a few things, 
in what is nearest, in his own personal abiding in Christ 
and his fruit-bearing for those around him, who will be set 
over many things, and have the power given for real pre- 
vailing intercession in wider circles. John says, " If a 
man love not his brother whom he hath seen, how can 
he love God whom he hath not seen?'' Faithfulness in 
the lesser, in our conduct toward the brother near us, is 
the only way to reach the higher fellowship with the 
unseen God. We cannot impress it on ourselves too 
deeply — our power of access as intercessors, our power 
of prevailing prayer with God in heaven, depends on a 
life given up to fruit-bearing for men. 

What light this throws on all the parable has taught 
us about fruit! Here you have the reason why the 
Father cleanses us that we may bear more fruit, why the 
Son calls us so urgently to abide in Him and bear much 
fruit. It is that we may be led on to the higher honour 
of standing in God's counsel — may we not say, becoming 
His Privy Councillors, whom He admits to a share in 
the rule of the world, and whose will He allows a voice 
in the distribution of His blessings? 

Let us seek to combine the two things. Let all our 
desire to abide in Christ and bear fruit that abides point 
us on to the still higher grace of intercession — seeking 
and obtaining from God His heavenly blessing in greater 
power. And let all our intercession ever lead us back 
to the question whether our life is indeed a branch life, 
as wholly given to abiding and fruit-bearing as the 
natural branch, or as the Heavenly Vine Himself. Rest 
not till that question has had a clear and full answer. 



48 



THE FRUIT OF THE VINE. 



III. 

It is this abiding and fruit-bearing as the condition of 
intercession, that is meant and summed up in the ivord the 
^' Name of Christ.'^^ The promise Christ gives that the 
fruit-bearer shall receive from the Father whatsoever 
he shall ask is limited to prayer ''in My Name,'''' 

We all know the force of the expression, " It is all a 
mere name." How much there has been in prayer of 
the use of Christ's Name in which it has been but a 
name, and nothing more; or in which the use of the 
Xame has been limited to certain thoughts about Him ; 
or of the vain effort to use it in our strength, without 
the God-given faith that alone can speak it aright! 

And what then does that Xame mean, and what does 
its use imply? A name always supposes the object, the 
reality, the living person to which it applies. When I 
take the Xame of Christ on my lips in prayer, it means 
that I have the living Christ Himself there. He said, 
" If ye abide in Me, ask whatsoever ye will, and it shall 
be done unto you.'' On earth we sometimes use the 
name of an absent person as our plea. In prayer to God 
this is not so. It is a present Christ whose Xame we 
plead — present with God, present with us. The two 
conditions of prevailing prayer Christ mentions in the 
parable are eventually one — " If ye abide in Me, " and 
" In My Name " ask what ye will, and it shall be done. 
They both express the same thing, living union to Christ. 
The name always expresses the nature. And how can I 
wield this mighty power of God, asking what I will, and 
getting it, except as the life and nature and power of the 
Son of God work in me? 

As I am called to use that Xame, I need to waken my 



THE FBUIT OF THE VINE. 49 

consciousness to the fact of how entirely it is Christ that 
brings me nigh to God, to stir my faith to the confident 
assurance that I am indeed in Christ, and Christ in me, 
and that therefore my prayer will be heard. God^s 
judgment of what the Name of Christ really is to me 
depends on what He sees of the abiding in Him. While 
to the unconverted or the new-born feeble Christian the 
iSTame is given as their plea, when they know nothing 
but His blessed atonement and righteousness, in these 
special prayer promises, for the work of the kingdom 
and its extension througli intercession, the Name means 
a great deal more. '^ If ye abide in Me, ask whatsoever 
ye will and it shall be done to you"; "that whatsoever 
ye shall ask the Father in My Namej He may give it 
you." The Name of Christ, proved to be true in us by 
abiding and fruit-bearing, is the jDower of prevailing 
prayer. 

We have come to the end of our meditations. We 
have, I trust, learnt the great truth the parable teaches 
— that, as surely as every vine and its every branch 
exists only for the sake of its fruit, so Christ the 
Heavenly Vine and His every Branch exists solely to 
bring forth fruit for the salvation of men. And with 
that the other truth, which is its complement — that for 
our abundant fruit-bearing to the glory of God the most 
abundant and sufficient provision has been made in C'.rist 
Jesus. We must bear fruit; we can bear much fruit. 

As we now turn to be not hearers only but doers, and 
ask how we are to enter upon this life of much fruit- 
bearing, let us beware of one mistake. Do not begin at 
the wrong end. The branch stands between the vine 
and the fruit. I have often repeated the thought. Set 
your heart on fruit as God's heart is set upon it. But 



50 THE FRUIT OF THE VINE. 

beware of beginning by looking at what you think you 
can do. The result will probably be the fear that you 
are as far from bearing much fruit as ever. Let me say 
to every young believer who would learn to live out the 
parable to the full: Turn to Jesus the Heavenly Vine. 
Fix your eye on Him and the certainty that He ivill luork 
all in you. Fix your heart on God the Husbandman, 
who will care for you as He cares for Jesus. " He that be- 
lieveth on Me, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living 
water." Believe in Christ Jesus, and streams of living 
sap will flow through you, and out of you in fruit. Do, 
as a true disciple, yield yourself to the Vine to be as 
entirely set apart for fruit-bearing as He is : He will fill 
you with His heavenly life. 

Let us all cry mightily to God that the great and 
mighty truth may be revealed fully in us, and around 
us in the Church, by His Holy Spirit. Let us live as 
witnesses for it. Let us seek especially for grace when 
we have access to young Christians or influence over 
them, to train them for this most blessed life — being 
true fruit-bearing branches of the True Vine. 



Jul 16 1898 



''H"' 



[-|BRARY OF CONGRESS %l 



029 789 388 9 



